Audio Streams Double in H1, Surpass Music Video Streams For the First Time

The number of audio streams has surpassed the number of video streams for the first time in the US music industry, says a Nielsen report [download page]. Audio streams jumped to 113.6 billion in the first half of the year, almost double the count from the year-earlier period. Video streams also grew, but by a relatively smaller 28.6% year-over-year, to 95.3 billion.

The result is continued growth in streaming consumption, as total on-demand music streams rose by 58.7% to 208.9 billion. Total digital music consumption – which includes digital albums, track equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums – increased by 14.8% to 223.5 million.

Other trends remained fairly steady from the full-year 2015 report. Overall album consumption, which includes track and streaming equivalent albums, grew by 8.9%, a more modest increase than in 2015 (15.2%).

Total album sales continued to decline, by 13.6% overall. LP/vinyl sales remained the sole bright spot, with sales growth in the double-digits. However, LP/vinyl represents a fractional proportion of overall album sales, at around 6%.

Physical album sales were again down at all store types save for non-traditional stores, which include the internet, venues, direct-to-consumer and other retail outlets other than chains, independents, and mass merchants.

Other highlights from the report follow.

Drake’s “Views” was the top album of the first half of the year. Though it trailed Adele’s “25” in album sales, it had almost 10 times more on-demand audio streams.

The song “My House” from Flo Rida was the top digital song, with almost 2 million in sales. It was followed by Lukas Graham’s “7 Years,” which enjoyed 1.83 million sales.

“One Dance” from Drake, featuring Wizkid & Kyla, was the top song by digital consumption, featuring more than 1.4 million sales and more than 286 million audio streams.

The most streamed song of the first half was “Work,” from Rihanna featuring Drake. It saw more than half a billion (511.5 million) audio and video on-demand streams.

“One Dance” from Drake, featuring Wizkid & Kyla, had the most audio streams (286.4 million), while “Panda,” from Desiigner, had the most video streams (269.4 million).

The top genre overall by total album consumption was rock, though R&B/Hip-Hop led in digital tracks and on-demand streams.